Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ernie Ball - Model For Open-Source Transition?

Posted by simoniker on from the minus-the-piracy-bit dept.

fr0z writes " Ernie Ball is a company that makes guitar strings. After being raided by the BSA in 2000 without warning and fined $100,000 for a few unlicensed copies of software, CEO Sterling Ball vowed not to give another cent to Microsoft and within 6 months, according to CNET News, had the whole company switched to Red Hat Linux, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, and other free software."

30 of 869 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet Noises by MasterShake · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, we now know the rock and roll source for the Free Software movement Maybe we can get some bands and have an open-source concert!

    1. Re:Sweet Noises by jmo_jon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hey, hey! Whats wrong with the free software song!?

    2. Re:Sweet Noises by phurley · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just about everything, have you listened to it?

      --
      Home Automation & Linux -- now I know I'm a geek
    3. Re:Sweet Noises by AppyPappy · · Score: 2, Funny

      The terrible thing is that SCO will now send in the BSA.

      --

      If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem

  2. Oh, the irony of it.... by ChiefGeneralManager · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it might just be me, but is that a Windows 2003 Server ad that appears on the page along with Ernie Ball's story?

    1. Re:Oh, the irony of it.... by Zyrill · · Score: 1, Funny

      well i have a nice linux-banner - nothing to be ashamed of! maybe it's your capitalistic karma that makes the W2K3S banner show?

    2. Re:Oh, the irony of it.... by clare-ents · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm sure it doesn't.

      If you wish to add an NT 4 Workstation computer to your network of NT4 machines I'm sure you'd have no problem buying the appropriate license and making sure the hardware had drivers.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
  3. More raids please by cjcormack · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe the BSA should carry out more raids and "convert" more people to Linux!

    1. Re:More raids please by Zemran · · Score: 5, Funny

      At $100,000 each raid it would still be more profitable for them than producing reliable software.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    2. Re:More raids please by Zemran · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course, the people who are most able to get other jobs move on first

      I think it would be the people who are most affected by this that move on first (i.e. those that want to browse rather than work) and those that are actually getting on with work are not going to be too fussed. So the firm loses those that do least work. Seems like a good move but then here am I on /. while at work...

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    3. Re:More raids please by tiled_rainbows · · Score: 5, Funny

      For somebody whose job is filling out forms all day, invoicing and exporting, why do they need a Web browser?

      because otherwise they will go insane with boredom, you insensitive clod!

      --

      evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!
    4. Re:More raids please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      where are you posting from?

      SCO, Utah Head Office.

    5. Re:More raids please by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 5, Funny

      More to the point, look where he's posting to.

    6. Re:More raids please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Fuck you from the call centre. We got online.

    7. Re:More raids please by babbage · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but these people work for a frickin' guitar company. I bet someone like AC/DC or Sonic Youth is sitting over in the next cubicle from the average desk worker, rocking out all day long. How could you get bored in an environment like that?

      "Hey Thurston, more feedback? Thanks!"

      --
      DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
    8. Re:More raids please by AntiOrganic · · Score: 2, Funny

      Have you forgotten? This is Slashdot! You need "6. Profit!" Actually, you don't, and I'm happy for you.

  4. RAIDED!!! by dcw3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    After being raided by the BSA in 2000

    Hey, I knew we went overboard with the Patriot act, but when did the BSA (Boyscouts of America) start doing raids?!?

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  5. ok bad pun by GW+Hayduke · · Score: 1, Funny

    So they opted away from the "super Sleazy" so they can continue making the "Super Slinky?" /obscure guitarist info

    --
    -- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
  6. I'm switching by bunyip · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yep - hauling out my piano and dumping it. It's time to learn to play guitar.

    I wanna support these guys and I'd feel pretty silly just buying strings.

    Alan.

  7. I own an abacus :) by CGP314 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't care if we have to buy 10,000 abacuses

    I bet Abacus Inc is pretty pissed at the Red Hat right now. That's one big contract to miss out on.

  8. Don't.... by SushiFugu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do not taunt Happy Ernie Bal...er.. wait, wrong ball.

  9. Re:Actually by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Show me proof of ownership for your toilet. Bet you can't!

    Will a hard dump of its contents do?

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  10. Re:BSA? by hplasm · · Score: 2, Funny
    What the hell do the Boy Scouts of America want with guitar strings?

    Garrottes for woodchucks.

    --
    ...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
  11. What?! by mschoolbus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where did the Boy Scouts of America even get the right to do this crap to companies...

    We never had that much fun in Boy Scouts... =P

  12. Re:What BSA Raids accomplish by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2, Funny

    How does the BSA know you have some of their member's software, and thus *might* be breaking license and are a good target for a raid?

    Either you've registered your software and the software vendor shared the list with the BSA, or you were stupid enough to call up the BSA after seeing one of their ads and asking for assistance with license compliance auditing.

    The TRUE lesson to be learned from the BSA is pirate ALL software published by BSA members... then there is no record of your company in their databases. Just make sure you don't ever email them from Outlook or via an Exchange server unless you can 'correct' the headers appropriately.

  13. I am going to buy Ernie Ball strings from now on. by BlackBolt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, that's it for me then - I'm going to buy Ernie Ball strings from now on. Actually, all strings seem pretty much the same to me, what with massive distortion and high volumes, so why not support people who have er.. Balls? (sorry)

  14. Re:the downside of all this... by Loosewire · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes, however a toddler with no clue can get round it ;-)

    --
    Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
  15. Oh the irony by jmwww · · Score: 2, Funny

    What if SCO reads that article, and decides to make him the first "end user" sued?:-jmw

  16. Doh! by redtail1 · · Score: 4, Funny
    This paragraph cracked me up:

    So what did swearing off Microsoft entail? We looked at all the alternatives. We looked at Apple, but that's owned in part by Microsoft. (Editor's note: Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997.)

    Somewhere, a man wearing a black turtleneck is going, "Doh!"

  17. Re:Oh come on by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 3, Funny

    The BSA went after him because he was well known and too small to fight back. They wanted publicity.

    They got it too, but it wasn't the kind they were hoping for.

    --
    Have you got your LWN subscription yet?